Richard Cohen, a columnist formerly in the tank for McCain, has a column on how McCain has soiled himself with dishonor. The stain has been growing since 2000, Cohen says, when McCain lied for political gain by concealing that he abhorred the Confederate Flag during his campaign against George W. Bush. According to Cohen, the stain became permanent this past week on The View when McCain lied about lying in his campaign commercials.
For Cohen, in other words, John McCain officially jumped the shark when he went on The View. For others, it occurred much earlier. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, "jumping the shark" refers to the moment a television show goes too far and begins an irreversible decline. For Happy Days, that moment was when Fonzie jumped the shark on water skis. However, jumping the shark analysis and the common categories for television shows are surprisingly applicable to John McCain.
So, when did John McCain, like so many television shows before him, finally jump the shark?
A Very Special Episode - Keating 5. In the very special episodes, a character is led astray after which he usually learns A Very Important Lesson. In John McCain’s case, he went astray when he got involved in the Keating 5 scandal. McCain was one of five United States Senators embroiled in the corruption scandal associated with the failure of Savings & Loans in the late 80s and early 90s. Savings & Loans had been deregulated in the 80s and were allowed to make increasingly risky investments that led to their collapse. (Hmm, that sounds familiar some how). At the request of Charles Keating, head of the Lincoln Savings & Loan, the 5 Senators applied pressure to government regulators to delay prosecution. McCain was socially close to Keating, had business ties, and had received various perks from him. At the end of the investigation, McCain was criticized for his poor judgment and professes to have learned A Very Important Lesson. However, based on his subsequent actions and continuing to take economic advice from the likes of Phil Gramm; that Lesson apparently was not that financial institutions need to be regulated to protect themselves and taxpayers from their excesses which result in boom & crash economics.
Wedding - Cindy McCain. In some sitcoms, the romantic tension between two characters is stretched out until they finally get together. In John McCain's case, he had been something of a debauched hell raiser who got married to Carol Shepp, a swimwear model. After McCain was tragically shot down and taken prisoner during the Viet Nam war, Carol waited for him, raising their children. However, during his captivity, Carol was, herself, horribly injured in an automobile accident. When McCain returned, she was not physically the same woman he had left. Before long, McCain began having extramarital affairs. Forty-five days after he divorced Carol, McCain married Cindy Hensley, a beautiful beer heiress, 18 years younger than him. Her family fortune and connections were instrumental in fueling McCain's political career.
Same Character Different Actor - McCain 2.0. It is not unusual in the course of a long running show for the actor playing a character to leave and be replaced by a different actor playing the same character. After having been defeated by the mudslinging tactics of George W. Bush, McCain decided, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." This was the birth of McCain 2.0. After employing the political operatives who had savaged him in 2000, McCain was a new man. Honor was good branding, but not to be taken seriously. Agents of intolerance, such as Jerry Falwell, were now to be courted, not criticized. Bush's once reckless tax cuts for the rich were not to be reversed, they were now to be enshrined as dogma. Immigration reform -- what immigration reform?
New Kid in Town - Sarah Palin. Another common feature of long running sitcoms is that story lines for old characters grow stale. Along comes a new character in an effort to freshen things up. This most certainly happened when McCain chose Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential selection. One is the son of a son of an admiral who has become a curmudgeonly old man after decades entrenched in the Senate. The other is a vivacious young small town mayor recently turned governor of 650,000 people who has rarely ventured beyond her Alaskan home. (It's next to Russia!) The only thing they share is a love of power and a hostility to transparency in the executive branch. Hijinx are sure to ensue!
Ted McGinley. Ted McGinley is the patron saint of shark jumping. He has joined a number of shows as they were jumping, including Happy Days, The Love Boat, Dynasty, and (some might argue) Married . . . With Children. No word yet on whether McGinley supports McCain or Obama, but the world awaits. A nation's fate may hang in the balance.